Just Another Lie
by cassielouwho
Summary: Not able to disobey orders, Ward and Simmons must work undercover as a married couple to discover something that has fooled even Shield command.
1. Chapter 1

AN: I completely deleted Observations. I don't think I knew AoS well enough when I started and had no idea where I was going with it. I loved some parts of it, so I've decided to start over with the general theme of Ward x Simmons being undercover together

Jemma was glad to have her lab to herself. It was a rare occasion which she took full advantage of when ever the opportunity came around. Fitz had been whisked away by Skye early in the morning. Now that she was better, Skye took advantage of down time by exploring what ever place they were stopped in. Today, Fitz was showing Skye around one of the smaller Shield bases. Which gave Jemma at least a few hours to do what she pleased in the lab with out Fitz's remarks on what she did.

Though, it was nice to have a lab with out Fitz's chatter, the silence- save for the hums of the equipment- was a little too much. As she worked, Jemma hummed softly to herself. The quietness of the lab was broken from the noise of the door sliding open.

Jemma looked up to see Ward.

**Ward said slowly. **

**Jemma glanced down at her work that was spread across the table. It would be a waste to end her experiment now. The results would be inconclusive. **

**Jemma climbed up the stairs just over an hour later after Ward had asked her. She was still unsure what he wanted to talk about and hadn't given it much thought as she had worked. She found him at the counter by the tiny kitchen with papers spread around him. **

**Ward answered. **

**Her confused expression prompted him to go further and explain. **

**Ward sighed. **

**A hint of a smile tugged at his lips. **

**Jemma slipped into the seat across from him. **

**The question threw him off guard a little. From their time together, Jemma knew that was a hard thing to do. Yet, her asking a very simple question had seemed to shock him. **

**He added quickly to cut her off. **

**He leaned over to grab a few papers from the cluttered mess before speaking again. **

**Jemma tried to keep the shock off her face. **

**Jemma nodded. **

**He rolled he eyes at least what passed for it, but continued. Jemma had been under the impression that their talk would last an hour or so, but two hours passed and by the third her stomach was growling. They stopped to eat, she made the both of them sandwiches. And after his talk resumed. It was an hour after talking and him quizzing her that he deemed she knew her cover well. Of course, they still had a week till she would be put under real scrutiny. **

**She was to become Jemma Stevens, a newly wed who recently moved to the town on the east coast of Florida with her husband Grant Stevens. It was a simple cover for her. Jemma Stevens had just accepted a research job for a university**Hey, what was all that about?Oh. Um ?Because that was not nothing. Either you two were planning the most boring meeting ever or are going through legal documents to be the hell?Where the hell did you get that from?What?! It's what I over heard when I went up are not getting married! Well not really. Just ?Yes. Undercover.I can actually do undercover work. It isn't have seen you, right? You shot the one agent because you can't lie at , Simmons, but I have to agree with Skye. You can't lie all that well. It's why your a scientist. You don't need to lie as , even if you can get away with the whole lying bit, why do they want you?Way to boost her confidence, both of you. Shield has been looking into an arms dealer of sorts, one that deals with more of the unknown that has been making itself known the last few years. They discovered that multiple threads all lead to one place, but from there they're still unaware of who's running it, and some of biotech they've found has never been seen before. They have a few leads of course, they just require people getting close enough to dig a little deeper.I'm sure you'll do find. I mean, this is what you wanted. Out of the lab with it's nice protective lab, and into the world with angry people who have two suck. I want to do this. I know I can do this.I'm not saying you can't. It's just you don't have the track record with lying, and it's dangerous, Simmons. What if Ward isn't there in a bad situation? You can't protect don;t want you getting you for the away. I need a moment to .Let me in there.

**He shot back, and a minute later he was sliding open her door. **

**Jemma shook her head. **

**Jemma nodded. **

**He closed the bunk door on his way out. **

**At least she had something to look forward to in the morning.**


	2. Chapter 2

"You already have strength from working in the lab. Enough that it's not my main concern."

"If that was meant to sound nice, it didn't come out that way." Jemma huffed feeling exposed and open like child in the training room with Ward staring to critique every move.

It seemed that he stopped her every few seconds to readjust her abdomen, stance, or shoulders. Every time her fist connected with the worn punching bag he had some critique about how she did it.

"You know," Jemma pointed out, "I'm not going to learn anything if you keep interrupting me constantly. I thought we were under a time frame."

"We _are_." Ward stressed. "It would go a lot faster if you held your core steady and didn't twist every time."

"I thought you were teaching me self defense."

Ward moved from behind the beg where he previously holding it steady. "I am. I want you to be able to get into a position where you can run away from an attacker and get me or help. Realistically, that's not always going to happen. I feel a lot safer knowing you can throw a decent punch or happen to have a fire extinguisher."

Jemma grit her teeth at the jab. She was too stressed for the jokes. Ward quizzed her earlier, and though she slipped up only once, Jemma wasn't as comfortable as she was yesterday. Her weight shifted and her shoulders turned and she swung again with her first.

"Better." He said before his hands were on her middle guiding her to the correct stance. "I can hear you thinking, Simmons. Don't think, just act."

The breath she sucked in sounded audible to herself. Which also meant Ward heard it. Jemma didn't just touch people. She was not a person of affection with many given hugs and most forms of casual contact. Fitz received hugs very rarely and in situations where either one of them needed the contact.

A second later and his hands were gone.

"Hey, Simmons."

Jemma looked up at Fitz. There were only five days left till it was time to leave. Her goal was to finish one last project in the lab so she'd have the associated paper work to have during the down time during their case. Time permitting anyway, but from Jemma could tell there would some as there were less lab hours than she had expected. Apparently, having less of a work load would give her real life self time to analyze what ever samples were collected without raising questions.

"Need anything?"

Fitz shook his head. His hair had grown out just enough so that his curls shook with the motion. "No. I just wanted to say sorry for the other day. Your incredibly strong. I think we all know that by now. Be stupid not too. I just don't want you get to hurt."

"I know." Jemma said with a tense smiles. "I'll have Ward with me, and a majority of the time I'll be in a lab of some sort. Nothing to worry about."

Jemma stared at the red dress draped across the side of the shopping cart. There were other garments in the basket that Jemma questioned whether or not she'd even consider trying them on let alone buy them.

"Come along, Simmons." May said with out glancing back at the chemist.

"Is all of this even necessary?" She questioned. "Not that I'm opposed to showing a little more skin than I normally do, but I don't see how it's needed."

"Your cover isn't just a piece of paper, a name. It's how you act, speak, and dress. Some of your wardrobe is fine. Not all of it, though. You need something more."

"Fine." She muttered before following May into the next aisle of clothes. "How did you get stuck with this job anyway?"

"Experience." May answered as she examined a black dress. "One of them was a town similar to yours. And Skye would have been to distracted buying clothes for herself. Here." She thrust the material at her. When she didn't immediately take the dress she shook her head. "Go try it on."

Jemma nodded and retreated back to the fitting room.

"Let me see." May knocked against the door when she deemed two minutes enough for Jemma to change out of her own clothes and into the heavy dark material of the dress.

"I think it's a little much." The words tumbled out her mouth as soon as she opened the door for May to see. Jemma was wrong to think the red dress displayed excessive cleavage, not only was her cleavage on display, but it's back was open too. The only thing modest was it's length. And Jemma suspected that in the designer's mind it made up for the amount of skin it revealed.

"It's fine."

"Fine? It's not fine!"

"Simmons, it's cleavage. It won't harm you. And with the lack of ability to lie you need all the help you can get. You can change back to your clothes. I think we have enough to convince people you're Stevens not Simmons."

Jemma sighed at the state of her bunk. It was an absolute mess. Spending her last available time in the lab had proved to be productive at the cost of taking time away from other actions. Like packing her remaining her stuff. Which wasn't the worse. Only now it was her last night on the Bus and it was already late.

Not to mention both Skye and Fitz decided to throw Ward and her a going away party of sorts. Which took valuable time away from packing and left her just a bit tispy. It was a nice gesture, and she appreciated, but now she mentally kicked herself for not packing sooner. At least it was clothes and nothing bulky.

"Come in." She called after the first knock. "Here to quiz me again?" Jemma questioned when it was Ward on the other side of the door.

"No. You deserve a night off. Thank you."

Jemma crinkled her nose at him. "Thank you? I think I'm the one who should be saying that. I mean if you hadn't been teaching me how to go about all this I doubt I could do it. I still doubt I can actually pull any of this off tomorrow, but I feel better about this time."

He gave a light smile. "You still deserve most of the credit. You've been a very good student. With everything. I'm not worried."

Lair, she thought to herself though it wasn't shared out loud. He was worried. Ward always worried about the younger agents despite his denial of it.

"Just remember to breathe and not to think to much."

"Thank you." Jemma repeated with a light pat to his shoulder.

"Don't stay up too late. I _will_ be quizzing you on the ride there."

Her breathing finally evened out and her eyes were sealed off to the early noon light. From how she felt now, Jemma knew there was going to be a soreness there later. Her comfort was achieved and she had no want or need to move.

"Simmons."

She groaned at her name.

"Time to get up."

"No." She muttered.

"We're here."

"Huh?" She pried open her eyes this time. "Oh, your right. I fell asleep. Sorry."

Ward had pulled up to an older well tended one story house. It was bright and homey. Something she had started to dream of when she had made the move and joined Shield. That or cozy flat was her dream place to live.

"No need to apologize. You were tired. You needed it."

"But you didn't get to quiz me."

"You don't need it. I know preparation calms you, but too much is your down fall."

Jemma kept her grumbling as she climbed out of the more environmental friendly car that the Stevens shared.

"Shield movers left an hour ago. They have boxes inside for us to unpack ourselves and our own stuff too. We should start now."

It was hard to resist rolling her eyes. Two minutes in and he was already taking charge. It was an annoyance rather than an issue.

She didn't waste a moment to grab her own box, filled with lab equipment she didn't trust any body else to move. Ward simply raised his eyebrow.

"By all means. Go ahead. You do have the keys."

"Welcome to your new home, Mrs. Jemma Stevens." Ward announced with a fake goody grin as the door swung open.


	3. Chapter 3

Jemma sighed at the mess of the boxes around her. She picked up the empty container of take-out that sat empty by her foot. They had stopped just long enough to break for food. Though, Jemma had just come out to pick up the food before she had retreated back into the garage.

There wasn't a ton of lab equipment to unpack. Too much and it would look suspicious if someone accidentally saw. Still, they involved a mess of wires and parts that needed to be put together.

"Simmons?"

"Yeah?" Jemma yawned and turned from where she was sitting. 

"It's getting late."

"Alright..."

"You should get to bed."

"Oh, Ward." Jemma shook her head. "I think I can tell when I need to get to bed."

"I know. But you have a track record of staying up to late. Besides, you're getting no where with the equipment. Take a break. Go to bed. You can work on it in the morning."

He was right. She'd been staring at the same wires for an hour. Her mind kept wondering off, kept thinking about Fitz and Skye on the Bus. Were they holding up with out them? Coulson and May were generally pleasant company, but the two youngest agents were left alone. Jemma wouldn't be surprised if they were up to no good in their absence.

"Fine, fine I'll got to bed." Jemma held out the empty container towards him. "I don't know where trash is. I'm surprised you haven't realized I do my best work in the hours before bed, and the ones closest too when I wake."

"Night, Simmons." He smiled, shaking his head as she passed by.

"Night, Ward."

Setting up her room had been the first thing she had done. The rest of the house had been left to Ward to unpack how he pleased. The most time consuming part had been putting away her clothes neat and proper. Jemma was glad for it now as it was once less thing she had to do now. She fall asleep on the bed with her clothes still on.

She woke up a few hours later, both her eyes and head aching. As much as she tried, she couldn't fall asleep again. The room was too big, too open. The house didn't make many sounds either. Everything was too new for her.

Instead of fighting the wakefulness, Jemma stumbled back to the garage. Careful not to turn on lights as she went so she didn't accidentally wake Ward. With nothing else to occupy her mind, the wires came easily. It was mindless work when her head wasn't filled to the brim with thoughts. In another few hours most of the equipment was set up and could function. Her eyes were blurry when she stumbled back to her bed. Her sleep was too light, but Jemma was grateful for the few extra hours.

She yawned into her mug of tea. So far, it was the only comfort the morning had brought.

"I take it you didn't sleep well?" Ward asked from behind the laptop.

Jemma rolled her eyes. "And what gave it away? What are you looking at anyway?" She asked as she moved over to peer over his shoulder.

"A message to the team. Encrypted of course. Anything you want to add?"

"Tell the two monkey heads I advise them to say out of trouble."

"I thought Fitz was the monkey."

"Oh he is." Jemma agreed. "But so is Skye when the two of them are left alone. May and Coulson are going to need to keep an eye out on them."

"I;m sure they'll be just fine."

"Well, you have obviously never have had to deal with the two of them drunk."

"That bad."

"Very."

Jemma went back to her tea.

"So why didn't you sleep last night? And, yes, I heard you tinkering around with the wires. You're not a mouse."

"I don't know why you feel the need to point that out." Jemma muttered. "I don't know. New places, that sort of thing doesn't sit well with me always. Too many variables."

"Fair enough." He knew well enough to not press the issue. In a few days her sleep would come regularly. "So, there are few more boxes to unpack, and I think we should get another training session in."

Jemma hadn't meant to groan out loud. Or at least not as loud as she had. "Oh, sorry. It's just is it that necessary? I'm quite good at improvising."

Ward shook his head. "Simmons, this isn't up for discussion. If you aren't willing to cooperate with this, I'm sure I can make a very compelling argument to Coulson to why you shouldn't be in the field and find some one else to replace you."

"You're bluffing."

"Am I?"

Jemma couldn't tell. His expressions were hard to read most of the time. Still, she didn't want to risk being taken off the mission.

"Fine, but we do it now before I change my mind."

Basically, he had her do the same things that she had done previous sessions. This time he focused on disarming. A skill Jemma hoped she never had the chance to try for real.

"You're still thinking too much." Ward pointed out as he picked up the dummy gun from the floor. When she did manage to get the gun, it usually fell out of her grip before she could spin away from Ward.

"I got the gun...sort of." It was a feeble defense of her own poor skill.

"Well, it's something." He admitted. "I think were done for today. I was also thinking we should go out to one of the local restaurants. It'd be good to see how some of the people are, and they need to see us."

Jemma spent the rest of the day between unpacking boxes and exploring the house. It was a lovely house. Older yes, but it had charm. Who ever had owned the house previously had taken great care of it. She wondered briefly who had owned it before them? Was it someone by themselves, a couple who grew old, or a couple with a kid? Regardless of who, they had put a lot of time and thought in the house. So far the garage was home to her make shift lab and a training area for Ward as well. The dining room was a little on the large side, obviously meant for a larger family or hosting. There was a master bed room where she had set her personal items up and two smaller bedrooms. One was being used by Ward and the other was a make shift office. Just another place for Shield equipment, really.

Around six, Jemma made it back to her room. She was tempted to wear what she usually did. Jeans and jumper sounded so comfortable, but it was too hot. Besides she wasn't supposed to be Jemma Simmons, but Jemma Stevens. Jumpers were now off limits as long as she was her. Instead, she settled on a red cotton sun dress. A bit uncomfortable considering she didn't wear clothing like it very often. A little bit of change was always welcome.

"You ready?" Ward asked when she stepped into the kitchen.

"Yup. Ready as I'll ever be."

"Don't worry, you'll do fi-" He said glancing up from the laptop screen, the words stopping in his throat. "Wow...I mean...sorry. I just wasn't suspecting you to come out in a dress."

She screwed up her eyebrows at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I... I'm just not used to seeing you in a dress. It's...nice."

"Nice?" She asked just a bit skeptical. "Well, don't get used to it. It;s just for Stevens. Did they teach you nothing in Operations?"

"I can disarm a bomb."

"Oh, don't start now Ward. You already lost your edge. You can't even handle seeing me in a dress."

"And the Operations vs. the Academy feud lives on." He muttered to himself with a smile. "Come on, lets go."

The ride to the restaurant is short. He offers a few more words of advice. Jemma tries the best she can to at least appear appreciative. It's hard, though. She's nervous enough as it is. His words just remind her of how much she can't mess up. He doesn't need the words that he tells her. Ward's been in these situations before. How many people had he charmed? How many people had he lied to?

Jemma couldn't lie. Not really, maybe a few times it worked if she was lucky. She was a scientist. The whole point of her questions, her experiments was to come up with the truth or find a way to get there.

"You can do this. I know you can." He assured her one more time before parking the car.

"I hope so." She said it more to herself than him.

The restaurant isn't as crowded as she had suspected it would be. It came as relief for her, not so much for Ward. He had wanted to get to know the people, not a half empty place.

"How long are you visiting?" The waitress asked when she stopped at their tables.

"Actually," Ward's voice was full of charm. "We just moved in. My wife and I."

"Really?" The waitress was beaming now. Jemma couldn't tell if the town was desperate for new people or if it was the result the charm coming off of Ward in waves. "That's amazing news. We mainly get tourists around here. It's great for business, still it's nice to see new faces. So what brought you here?"

"My wife, Jemma, got a new job at one of the labs."

Jemma smiled when the waitress glanced over at her. Her attention turned back to Ward in a matter of seconds.

"That's nice. So what do you do?" 

"Private security."

"A man in uniform." She said with a wink at Jemma. " It's good to know there's some one else ro help protect people with all the crazy things that have been happening lately. So, what would like for drinks?"

"What was that?" Jemma asked. "Not the drinks. What did you say before?"

"Oh." The waitress frowned. "It's just some strange things have been happening. I'm sure it's nothing. Anyway, what would you like to drink?" It was obvious she wouldn't be elaborating on the topic.

"You were flirting." Jemma pointed out when the waitress was out of ear shot.

"Jealous?" he asked with an amused smile.

"Shut up. I want to know more about these strange happenings." 


End file.
